KINGMAN, Ariz.  A bit of presidential history will be departing from the Kingman Airport and Industrial Park on Monday to former President Lyndon B. Johnson's Texas White House.

Straube's Aircraft Services has been working for the last eight weeks on restoring the paint job of a Lockheed JetStar business jet that was used as a backup to Johnson's primary JetStar.

"Johnson was the first vice president to ask a sitting president (John F. Kennedy) for his own aircraft," said Lyndon B. Johnson Historical Park Superintendent Russ Whitlock.

Before Johnson, vice presidents had to ask the president if they could borrow an aircraft to make a trip.

"That wasn't Johnson's style," Whitlock said.

Kennedy granted him the favor and Johnson asked to use the fleet of five JetStar aircraft already designated for the president's use.

He liked the JetStar and used it much more frequently (even after he became president) than the larger Boeing 707 that the president used, Whitlock said.

The JetStar was smaller, faster and more fuel-efficient than the 707 and could land at smaller airports. It also seated fewer passengers (about 13) than the 707, which meant that Johnson could hand-pick the passengers, he said.

He liked to refer to the plane as "Air Force One-and-a-Half."

According to Air Force records, the plane entered into service in 1961 and was retired to Davis-Monthan in 1983 after serving as a VIP jet for Air Force personnel.

The plane is not in flyable condition. It was taken apart and moved to Kingman for its new paint job on three semi-trucks.

This week it will be disassembled once more, placed on three trucks and driven to the historical park in Texas. The plane will then be set up on the landing strip behind the Texas White House.

The C-140 is a military version of the Lockheed Model 1329 light jet transport. The prototype Jet Star was first flown on Sept. 4, 1957, only 241 days after design completion. Production began in 1960.

Although the majority of those produced were built for the civilian market, the USAF bought 16 Jet Stars as C-140As and Bs, the first of which was delivered in late 1961. Five C-140As were assigned to the Air Force Communications Command for use in evaluating military navigation aids and operations. Eleven C-140Bs were assigned to the Military Airlift Command for operational support airlift. Six of them were flown as VC-140Bs on special government and White House airlift missions by the 89th Military Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

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